No. 4 Alabama fell victim to No. 11 Oklahoma and suffered its second loss of the season on Saturday. The loss makes the Tide’s path to the playoffs harder, but the Crimson Tide still controls its own postseason destiny.
What made Alabama’s defeat worse was that it controlled the game for most of the game, outperforming the Sooners in almost every statistical category. However, the Crimson Tide only beat itself, turning the ball over three times.
The defense also played well, holding Oklahoma to just 212 total yards all day: 138 passing yards and 74 rushing yards. Alabama’s loss was the fault of its own, and now it will have to show that it’s capable of responding yet again.
Defensive lineman Tim Keenan said that the Tide will bounce back from the loss, just like it did after its loss to Florida State.
“Just like Week 1,” Keenan said, “We’re hated by everybody and everything, we’re in a familiar spot, we just got to go work and get better… Everything we want is still in front of us, but we got to go and handle Eastern Illinois next week and go on from there.”
Keenan also talked about how they’ll ensure that Alabama sets the tone next and responds next week.
“Doing what we know to do, but doing it better,” Keenan said. “Evidently, what we were doing wasn’t the best. So, we got to do what we were doing even better and just execute with even more attention to detail. If you thought you had the most, have even more. If you thought you were going hard, put more into it, pretty much… Just that adversity, us bouncing back. Understanding that now it’s like ‘okay, I knew they were a good team, I knew this and that,’ but now focusing on each other and everybody in the building that’s for you and going out there to battle and playing for your brother.”
Unfortunately, a good showing on both sides of the ball from the Crimson Tide went to waste with the Tide beating itself. It will now need to show everybody that it can respond and bounce back for good this time, because it can’t lose another game.
As of now, if the Tide wins out and beats Auburn, then it will likely face Texas A&M in the SEC Championship, which it will need to win to ensure a spot in the College Football Playoffs. But until then, Alabama will shift its focus to Eastern Illinois on Saturday.
